Black Panther's Costume Designer Breaks Down T'Challa's Entrance Scene

Hi, I'm Ruth Carter, costumer designer

for the Black Panther and these are Notes on a Scene.

We're talking about the scene

where the Black Panther arrives in Wakanda

after rescuing Nakia.

He is greeted by his mother, the Queen Ramonda,

and his sister, Shuri.

Queen Mother, princess.

And then we're also talking about the Warrior Falls.

The storytelling element has everything

to do with honoring tradition,

the different areas of Africa

that have such a rich history and culture.

So, as T'Challa enters Wakanda on the landing pad,

we're greeted by the Queen Ramonda.

She's wearing what I call her shoulder mantel,

including the isicolo, I-S-icolo,

which is the South African married woman's hat

and when I looked at this hat,

I felt like it looked like a crown

and I really wanted it to be perfectly shaped,

and the only way that we could get it perfectly shaped was

to have it 3D printed, along with her shoulder mantel,

which is patterned from African lace.

It's put into a computer and there are algorithms

that are designing these beautiful lines

in this beautiful lace and then it's 3D printed

with a flexible material

so she could actually get it on and get it off and wear it.

It's wearable art.

Thank you, Nakia.

It is so good to have you back with us.

And then you have Shuri who is wearing an Adinkra symbol.

This Adinkra symbol means purpose

and she certainly has a purpose in Wakanda.

Did he freeze?

Like an antelope in headlights.

(laughs)

Over on your left, you see Florence Kasumba

who is one of our Dora Milaje.

She is wearing silver metallic armor.

Ryan Coogler really wanted all

of the armor on the Dora Milaje to look like jewelry

and so, we made sure that it had a brilliant shine.

There's this area of the Dora Milaje

that I like to call the harness.

I wanted the harness to look like it was hand-tooled,

hand-tooled by the same special craftsmen

of Wakanda that would make the queen's costume

because it's a great honor for someone to be a Dora Milaje.

They also wear neck rings and arm rings

that are from South Africa, just like the Ndebele tribe.

The bead work is inspired by the Turkana tribe.

So, you see different regions of Africa.

My comfort for your loss.

Thank you, Nakia.

It is so good to have you back with us.

Take her to the River Provence

to prepare her for the ceremony.

Yes, General.

Nakia is a War Dog, she is a Nigeria princess.

Nakia wears green, right here a river stone

and it's something that we wanted to include

to signify her tribe and her country.

She is a spy and she was undercover as a Muslim girl

and she wore a burqa-type drape when she was a spy,

and then she takes it off

and underneath it all is her fighting costume.

On the other side of T'Challa, we have Okoye

who is played by Danai Gurira

and she is wearing gold armor.

That signifies that she is the leader of the Dora Milaje.

And then in the middle, we see T'Challa.

His costume here is from Captain America: Civil War.

He has a triangular pattern that we infused in the suit.

It's kind of like the sacred geometry of Africa.

Not only makes him a superhero,

it also makes him an African king.

An antelope in headlights.

(laughs)

Are you finished?

In fusing African tradition with modern technology,

one place we started was the 3D printing

of the shoulder mantel for Queen Ramonda.

Another representation is seen in Shuri.

Shuri is wearing a necklace here in more

of a modern, kind of a choker way,

but these little puka shells were used as trading,

they represented wealth.

Also, with the Dora Milaje,

anywhere where you see a silver

or a metal substance, it is Vibranium.

Ryan was very specific about many things,

he really wanted the Warrior Falls to be magnificent.

Victory in ritual combat

comes by yield

or death.

So, he said when we look up at that mountain,

it should be a feast for the eyes.

He wanted to bring a tradition to the Warrior Falls

because this is the one time of the year

where anyone from any one of the tribes

of Wakanda could challenge the king.

I now offer...

A path to the throne.

Here we are at the Warrior Falls and we have Zuri.

He is our shaman of Wakanda

and he was to represent all the tribes of Wakanda.

Nigerian men wear these big, open-shaped garments.

You also see beading along his front tabard

and the front tabard beading was in the tradition

of the Turkana tribe.

Zuri's poncho is made up of tiny tubes,

they were sewn together, made of silk.

It also drapes along his back

so that when he's standing in the water,

they would blow and billow

and make it have this magical effect.

The color, the bead work, the modern drape makes him

somewhat of a witch doctor.

He has his face painted

and he is our spiritual leader in Wakanda.

You see here little details on Zuri's sleeve

and they're kind of triangular-shaped.

This shape we used a lot in the design on the Black Panther.

These in particular are from the Tuareg,

as well as the color,

the Tuareg used this beautiful aubergine

with silver and black in their traditional dress.

The Merchant Tribe will not challenge today.

Here we have the Merchant Tribe elder, her name is Dorthy

and Dorthy has these gigantic earrings on.

They're beautiful in their glory.

She's also wearing Ethiopian crosses

down the front of her drape.

She also has her turban adorned

with the same Tuareg symbols.

So, she is our leader of the Merchant Tribe

which is based on all of the beauty of the Tuareg,

and behind her, you see more of it.

You see more of the drapes.

Standing with her is her fierce warrior

and he is adorned in the same ancient African

traditional style of the Tuareg tribe,

having some symbols, having some crosses

as well as covering his face as the men did.

(tribal cry)

Here we have the Border Tribe.

We have our Border Tribe elder

and he's wearing his Lesotho-inspired

heart-shape drape over his head

and he's also adorned in his Lesotho blanket,

which we added Vibranium to.

The Vibranium was printed on top of the Lesotho blanket

so that they would have a shield-like ability,

so they could fight with their blankets

as if they were shields.

You have Daniel Kaluuya here who plays W'Kabi

and he is a Border Tribe warrior.

On his blanket, he has some of the Adinkra symbols,

and here behind him, you see one of his soldiers

wearing a Lesotho blanket

that has the beautiful prints on it

as well as he's wearing the heart-shape hats

that they wear during the winter.

The Border Tribe will not challenge today.

(tribal cry)

Here is the River Tribe and we see Lupita Nyong'o

in her traditional beaded costume

based on the Suri people of Africa.

And you see them along the rivers

of different areas of Africa,

and you see a lot of them with children

and they have sticks and flowers

that they adorn their bodies with,

but she also has her warrior harness complete

with the puka shells that signify her great wealth.

Her River Tribe elder who is here seen with the lip plate

to signify also his wealth and his status.

His costume is completely made up.

It's beaded from African artifacts

that I found at flea markets

and then we made this warrior-style kaftan with a drape

and we covered it with puka shells,

again, to signify wealth, as well as this bead work

that was taken from different artifacts

that we found from Africa.

The lip plate is a complete prosthetic

and it is put on every day, it takes hours,

by the makeup department.

He also has gauges in his ears

that were painted with the design work

that you'll see in some of his other costumes.

But that day on set for him,

he has to drink his beverages from a straw,

but he still has the ability to hold a conversation.

The River Tribe will not challenge today.

Here you see one very important element

and that is the Kimoyo Beads.

Everyone in Wakanda wears Kimoyo Beads

because they are a source of communication.

You can bring up holograms,

you can talk to people right through your Kimoyo Beads.

(tribal cry)

The Mining Tribe will not challenge today.

Here is the Mining Tribe,

including the Mining Tribe elder and her fierce warrior.

The Mining Tribe elder is wearing a Hemba tribe wig

and complete with the little puffs

that they wear on the bottom of it.

It's ocher and Shea butter

and it makes up this wonderful piece.

The amber crown we made for her is something

that I had as an inspiration on Roots,

the other film that I have done, and I brought it on

because it framed her face so beautifully.

Her warrior here is wearing a Maasai headdress.

His headdress is worn by Maasai warriors

and the bigger the feathers

or the fur that goes around the headdress,

the more fierce a warrior you are.

The bead work that is done around the face is done

by hand by craftspeople,

but this one happened to be done by hand by me,

late night, in the costume shop

because I was insistent on having this headdress

in this scene.

These drapes are just a real long piece of fabric

and just have to be knotted on the shoulder,

and kind of a free-form, creative process on the day.

And here to the left, you see more of the Miners

and the Miners wear this gorgeous orange

and red combination similar to the Turkana tribe.

For this scene, it wasn't as many people

to dress as you would think

because they came in in sections

and we got them pre-fit

and people knew what they were wearing,

and as much as they could be self-sufficient, we tried.

We had about 15 people that day,

but for a group of 350 people, that's just not a lot.

A lot of people were coming over to me and saying,

can you tie that the way you did it in the fitting?

Or can you wrap my turban?

So I had to train a lot of people on

how to wrap a turban or how to tie a drape.

Is there any member of a royal blood

who wishes to challenge for the throne?

Here we have Shuri.

Shuri is wearing her traditional costume

that she's super uncomfortable in.

It is inclusive of this,

what she calls, a little MC Underbite

and also, these special beads that are real African beads

that are made, some of them are made of clay,

some of them are made of rolled paper.

In the back, you can't see it really,

but in the back of her costume is this,

sort of like a spear,

but it's a corset from the Dinka tribe

and it travels around her body, it attaches in the front,

and it has a long spear up the back.

We wanted her to have all of this stuff on her face

and around her body so she would be super uncomfortable

and it really did inspire her lines.

This corset is really uncomfortable,

so could we all just wrap it up and go home?

Now you can see the Dinka corset,

the way that it goes up in the back

and it comes down the sides and it attaches.

It has beads that go around her shoulders

and this is her traditional costume to wear

for that ceremony called the Warrior Falls.

It was inspiring to finally have a scene in

the Black Panther where it was all about tradition.

Because of that, it was really taking the research

and applying it to all of the things that you gather,

every color that you are inspired by,

and every texture that you have.

We brought together so many elements,

all together in one place unlike you'll ever see anywhere.

We had the Northern African Tuareg, we had Mali,

we have Nigeria represented, South Africa,

it was a beautiful spectacle

and so that was a way of kind of bringing our past forward

and showing it in a way that was mystical

and futuristic in a superhero film

like you have never seen before.

I think storytelling like that is

what the best stories are made of.